Forage Diversity

March is here, which means we're a few days away from green grass, which means we're close to a new grazing season.

Our area has had quite a winter.  Just three weeks ago we were ice skating on the frozen fields holding onto a rope and pulled by an ATV--running on top of the snow.  I only remember this happening one other time in my life, back in the 1960s.  But that's gone and the green tinge of new spring grass is bringing the photosynthetic hue back to the brown fields.

Where to start grazing? Each year, we pick a different pasture to begin.  

Why? Because grass, forbs, and herbs (the whole panoply of forages in a perennial pasture) do not all grow at the same time.

According to research by the Bionutrient Food Association, only one thing determines nutrient density in beef.  They've been conducting a two-year study sampling hundreds of steaks from various farms across the country.  Evaluating for 150 different nutrients, from minerals to fatty acids to vitamins, they've been trying to find the common denominators for the most balanced and heaviest load of nutrients.

Is it breed, often noted by color in cows.  Black Angus, Red Angus, white Charolais, black and white Pinzgauer, gray Brahman--you know how cows come in many different colors and styles.  Every breed association touts itself as the greatest gift to humanity.

Is it climate, like the difference between Alabama and North Dakota?  

Is it soil fertility?  

Is it the age of the beef?  Most American beef producers shoot for a finished animal at somewhere around two years of age; in France, the preference is for three years, and in some places it's even as high as 5-7 years.

Okay, enough teasing.  The answer to beef nutrient density is profound in its simplicity:  the only consistent determinant of the most nutrient-rich beef is the variety of plants the animal ate in its lifetime. 

Diversity.  Plain and simple.  The more different kind of plants consumed, the better the beef.

When you think about the variety of plants the conventional beef animal eats in America, it's pretty limited.  If the animal spends its last few months eating corn and soybeans, like most in feedlots, it's a simple ration.

Here at Polyface, one of our primary goals is to diversify the plants in our pastures. One of the best ways to do that is to start the grazing season on a different field each year.   The many different plants that can and should grow in a perennial prairie situation thrive under varied conditions.  Some like it cool and others like it hot.  Some like it wet and others like it dry. 

This is why "where to start" each season needs to be staggered year to year to ensure different plants reach physiological and phenotypical expression.  If we started on the same field every year, it would push the forages to mono-speciation rather than poly-speciation.  The plants that thrived under the first early grazing would proliferate in those fields and the ones that were weakened by that pruning period would suffer.

By rotating the start field, therefore, we set up a staggered yearly grazing that stimulates plant diversity.  That, in turn, creates the most nutrient density in the beef.  Isn't it fascinating that what's good for nutrition is also best for the ecology?  Diversifying the pasture sward also facilitates blooms throughout the season which in turn maintains flourishing pollinators.  

The whole ecological chain starts with the first field in the seasonal grazing rotation.  These are things we think about as early spring days wake up hibernating forages and we enjoy those first green tinges in the pastures.  Just like Polyface patrons bring intentionality to the dinner table, we bring intentionality to the grazing plan.

Your dinner is only as nutritious as the food we provide for our animals.  In a pastured livestock operation, it all starts with how many different plants inhabit the field.  Mainline conventional farming and landscaping is all about sameness.  Think lawncare, which dislikes dandelions and clover.  Or golf courses, which dislike anything except grass.

In fact, all these forbs and herbs add magnificent health to the landscape.  Here at Polyface, we treasure everything from chicory to goldenrod and milkweed.  The cows love these garnishes too.  

How to encourage diversity is at the heart of our spring farming tasks and what we're thinking about this time of year.  

Thank you for loyally caring for your health and the farmscape's health with your menu decisions.  They matter, and we're ever grateful.